information security | intelNews.org

News you may have missed #415

August 20, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

GCHQ tech arm adopts new personnel evaluation tests. The Communications Electronics Security Group is the information assurance arm of the General Communications Headquarters –Britain’s equivalent of the National Security Agency. CESG has now adopted a new testing method of verifying the competency of its IT security professionals, because apparently there are “not enough security professionals in the public and private sectors to go around”.
Swapped Russian insists he was no CIA spy. Of the four jailed Russians the US received from Moscow in exchange for the 11 Russian illegals in July, only one is talking. But Igor Sutyagin, a nuclear proliferation expert, who was convicted of links with a CIA front-company, insists he was no CIA spy. However, if that is so, why was he on Washington’s swap list in the first place?
Militants target Yemen spy officials. Two officers in Yemen’s Political Security Organization, Colonel Ali Abdul Kareem al-Ban, and Juman Safian, have been shot dead in recent days. Al-Qaeda militants, who assumed responsibility for the attacks, warned they will be stepping up operations inside neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 0 GCHQ tech arm adopts new personnel evaluation tests, 0 Militants target Yemen spy officials, 0 Swapped Russian insists he was no CIA spy, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Ali Abdul Kareem al-Ban, CESG (UK), GCHQ, Igor Sutyagin, imprisoned spy swaps, information security, Juman Safian, News, news you may have missed, Political Security Organization (Yemen), Russia, Russian illegals program spy ring, Saudi Arabia, UK, United States, Yemen

Analysis: US commentator argues in favor of breaking up NSA

March 27, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

NSA HQ

By IAN ALLEN| intelNews.org |
The US National Security Agency (NSA) is a gigantic intelligence organization –the world’s largest– which is tasked by the US government with worldwide communications surveillance, as well as communications security. But Wired magazine’s Noah Shachtman explains that the NSA’s two-fold mission forces two essentially distinct agencies to coexist under one roof. There’s the signals-intelligence directorate, the Big Brothers who, it is said, can tap into any electronic communication. And there’s the information-assurance directorate, the cybersecurity nerds whose job is to make sure the US government’s computers and telecommunications systems are hacker- and eavesdropper-free. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, communications interception, information security, intelligence reform, NSA, United States

News you may have missed #0208

December 7, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Georgia denies entry to Russian ‘spies’. Georgia has denied entry to a delegation of Russian scholars from the Russian State Archive and the Center for Caucasian Research at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. It’s the second time this year that the Georgians have accused Russian researchers of being spies.
US monitors China’s hiring of foreign journalists. A report by the Open Source Center of the US Directorate of National Intelligence notes that China has been hiring a growing number of foreign reporters to serve as overseas correspondents.
Audio interview with NSA’s information assurance director. Dickie George, technical director of information assurance at the US National Security Agency, has given a rare audio interview to GovInfo Security. The first part of the interview is available here. The second part will be posted in a few days.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with academic freedom, Center for Caucasian Research at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, China, Dickie George, espionage, Georgia, information security, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, News, news you may have missed, NSA, Russia, Russian State Archive, US DNI Open Source Center

News you may have missed #0092

September 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Pakistan to build own unmanned drones. But until it does, it will have to rely on the CIA’s Predator drones.
Cuba protests US denial of visa to wife of jailed spy. Obama is too much like Bush, say the Cubans. Jailed spy Gerardo Hernandez is one of the Cuban Five, who Cuba has offered to exchange for political dissidents held on the island.
Israeli spies allegedly diverted Lebanese Internet traffic. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says two Israeli spies, Jerry Orenstein and Ronen Neuhaus, used their telecommunications expertise to divert Lebanese Internet network traffic through Cyprus to Israel’s Haifa exchange center, where it could be intercepted by Israeli authorities. This blog has written extensively about the telecommunications wars currently taking place in the Middle East.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, communications interception, Cuba, Cuban Five, espionage, Hezbollah, information security, Internet, Israel, Jerry Orenstein, Lebanon, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, Ronen Neuhaus

Comment: Security is a Democratic Imperative

December 5, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment

British public opinion was shocked recently by the controversial arrest of Conservative Member of Parliament and Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green, which, critics have charged, amounted to a “Stalinist” act of a police state. Mr. Green was arrested in connection with a series of leaks of immigration-related information from the British Home office. Having failed to uncover the source of the leak, the Home Office contacted London’s Metropolitan Police in early October, with a request for help. The investigation led to Christopher Galley, a junior Home Office official, who in turn led police to the next link in the chain, namely Mr. Green. Early in the afternoon of November 27, the Conservative Parliamentarian was arrested and his offices and residence were searched. Mr. Green was held in police custody for nine hours before being released. Keep reading →